


In My Veins

by Ink_Knight



Category: Star Wars Legends: Legacy of the Force Series - Aaron Allston & Troy Denning & Karen Traviss
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, Canonical Character Death, Drabble, F/M, Gen, basically my first otp, even though writing a het pairing is kinda weird for me these days, post-lotf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 01:41:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3156197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Knight/pseuds/Ink_Knight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tenel Ka gets a nighttime visit she wasn't expecting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In My Veins

**Author's Note:**

> This idea basically wouldn't let me sleep last night until I wrote out what was on my mind. And then I put the finishing touches on it today. So I hope you guys enjoy it. Title taken from the Andrew Belle song of the same name.

She could feel the rough stone of the temple under her thighs, at odds with the thin silk dressing gown between her and it. But as her strong fingers traced the hot, uneven surface she knew where she was. From the thick humid air swirling around her and the rich green treetops stretching in every directions, causing pangs of familiar mourning to sound in her chest. She knew it wasn't real even as a small smile pulled at her mouth at the familiar sensations, and she let herself drink in a place that had been destroyed over a decade ago. She was distracted from her meandering thoughts by the sound of someone sitting down beside her. Turning her head her breath caught at the sight of the tousled brown curls on her new companion.

"Jacen..." She breathed out in disbelief. He turned to her, smile as charming and lopsided as ever. But while he looked just like the boy she'd given her heart to so long ago, trapped in that awkward stage between adolescence and adulthood, his eyes held the intervening years of painful experience.

"Hey Tenel Ka." His voice was soft, upper-Coruscanti accent lilting musically through the jungle air. She swallowed back the lump of emotions that rose in her throat and looked away to focus once more on the greenery spread out below them. But she could still feel him, his presence solid and warm in her senses in a way she hadn't felt in far too long.  
"This is a dream." She asserted, both saddened and relieved by that fact. He chuckled beside her, turning his own gaze out to the jungles where they'd spent their youth. His form shifted from the boy she'd known, melting into the shape of the man he should have been. The man he would have become had the fates chosen a different path.

"Sure, but that doesn't mean it isn't real too." His voice was deeper now, a low tenor that rang through the space between them to echo painfully in her heart. She shook her head though, fingers curling against the stone beneath them even as she felt her own form change. From Queen to Warrior, hair braided and armor pressing intimately against her skin as she hadn't felt it do in years. Finally though she gave in and looked over at him again, taking in the broad shoulders and shaggy brown hair. There was stubble on his strong jaw, and he was dressed rather like his father in fitted trousers and shirt. It stole her breath away to see him like this, the man she'd imagined when she'd allowed herself flights of fancy in her teenage years.

"Is it?" She asked, almost daring to hope as her eyes searched his sharp features for answers. He smiled and shrugged those strong shoulders, inciting a familiar feeling of frustration with his cavalier attitude.

"Uncle Luke was visited by Ben Kenobi and Yoda. Mom was visited by Grandpa before Anakin was born. Is it so unbelievable that I would visit you?" His reply was another question, challenging her in a way he hadn't dared to as a boy but had been learning to do before everything went wrong. A smile tugged at her lips again and she looked away, shaking it off with a sigh.

"Perhaps. But by those parameters you should be visiting your cousin, or Allana." She knew she was just being stubborn as she pointed that out but the grin it brought from him warmed her heart.

"What's to say I haven't? They're both far more open to the possibility than you." He sobered, staring down at where his boots bumped back against the stone temple in a repetitive rhythm that reminded her of the restless boy he had once been. "It took me a while to find a time I could reach you. This is a dream yes, but it's also me. Is that alright?"

She sensed the hesitation behind that last question, and she knew he had reason to feel it. And yet the anger and despair she'd felt at the thought of him for so long now wasn't here with them. There was pain over what he'd done, yes, but also acknowledgement that this wasn't the man who had done those things.

"Yes. I've missed you Jacen." Admitting it felt like a huge weight was lifted from her body, freeing her from something she hadn't realized had been weighing her down. She felt him reach out, his fingers pushing one of her braids back from her face so that he could see her better.

"I'm sorry Tenel Ka. For everything that happened. It doesn't make up for any of it, but it's true. I was lost, and I didn't find my way back in time." A knot of emotion nearly choked her at that and she leaned into his touch with her eyes closed against the threat of tears.

"I know. But you did. You warned me in time to save Allana. Jaina told me about the fight, about how you stopped when you could have won, so that you could warn me. You came back." It was something she'd clung to in the deepest heart of herself, a fact she'd kept sheltered and hidden against even its' own ability to reassure her.

"Like my Grandfather before me." He replied, a bittersweet smile on his face. She huffed something that was almost a laugh in response, reaching up to grasp his hand in her own. Feeling the dream starting to fade she turned to face him, dropping his hand so that she could trace her fingers across his jaw. He tilted his face into her hand, brandy-brown eyes warm on hers. Leaning in she brushed a soft kiss against his lips, the contact as light as a breath before everything faded away.

Slowly her eyes opened again to stare up at the silk canopy over her bed in the palace, lips tingling from that final goodbye kiss and tears falling freely down her pale cheeks. She took a slow, shaky breath, and closed her eyes once more to seek the calm she usually held so well. There was a bittersweet feeling left behind by the dream, but also a peace that was like a balm to her heart. A healing touch that told her she could finally move forward from the pain, and she smiled softly as sleep claimed her once more.


End file.
